The Government of India, under the transparency move triggered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, may take a leaf out of the Singapore government\u2019s methods to weed out unscrupulous and fraudulent vendors from the public procurement system.<\/p>\n
The Singapore government hosts a website called “GUIDE TO SINGAPORE PROCUREMENT”\u00a0https:\/\/www.gebiz.gov.sg\/<\/u> . The website serves as a single window to get every detail and track-record of vendors bidding for government contracts.<\/p>\n
This site lists suppliers debarred or disqualified from being awarded contracts by all public sector agencies — i.e. Ministries, Departments, Organs of State and Statutory Boards. Debarment or disqualification grounds are also clearly listed on the site. The centralised database on \u201cdebarred vendors\u201d enables all government agencies to verify the vendor track-record before allotting a contract.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, in India, different government ministries and public-sector undertakings host “Caution Notice” against vendors on their respective websites. These lists aren\u2019t collated on any centralised and transparent database or even made part of the \u2018debarment list\u2019 on the government\u2019s e-portal for central public procurement.<\/p>\n
Since such \u2018Caution Notices\u2019 are not included as compulsory checklist for vendor track-record, companies often manage to get away from scrutiny. This is especially common for smaller companies and for unregulated sector contracts, as despite red flags raised against companies, they continue to bid and win government contracts`. To cite a few examples, companies such as \u2018Vision India Staffing Private Limited\u2019 and ‘ASTM Skills Pvt. Ltd’ continue to highlight association with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) or other government department\u00a0despite the website showing a ‘Caution Notice’ against the company.<\/p>\n
This is also the case for big government contracts in defence, manufacturing, infrastructure or other critical sectors allotted to companies that are listed or are the \u2018big\u2019 names. Though any discrepancy becomes a public knowledge and promptly highlighted in media, many vendors have continued to bid for government projects. The case in point may be the controversies around Rafel, Maharashtra irrigation tenders, Delhi-Mumbai airport privatisation, 2G telecom licence, etc.<\/p>\n
A few of the regulated sectors, however, have been able to follow somewhat common rules for allowing only \u201cfit and proper investors\u201d in their respective sectors, for example in case of Yes Bank and Multi-commodity Exchange (MCX) founders.<\/p>\n
After demonetisation and GST\u00a0roll out, all eyes are on PM Modi to bring out sweeping public procurement reforms. Prioritising transparency in government bidding processes will be crucial for catalysing manufacturing and infrastructure development at a fastest-ever pace for the economy\u2019s revival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Government of India, under the transparency move triggered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, may take a leaf out of the Singapore government\u2019s methods to weed out unscrupulous and fraudulent vendors from the public procurement system. The Singapore government hosts a website called “GUIDE TO SINGAPORE PROCUREMENT”\u00a0https:\/\/www.gebiz.gov.sg\/ . The website serves as a single window […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,31],"tags":[213,307,192,395],"class_list":["post-6391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy-and-politics","category-news","tag-narendra-modi","tag-pmo","tag-prime-minister","tag-singapore"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n